Artist: Gilbert Stuart Title: The Skater (Portrait of William Grant) Exec. Date: 1782 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 245.5 x 147.4 cm Credit line: Andrew W. Mellon Collection ACC. NO.: 1950.18.1 Courtesy of: The National Gallery of Art ____________________________________________________________________________ At the onset of the American Revolution, Gilbert Stuart headed to London and became the apprentice of Benjamin West. He completed the The Skater, his first full length portrait, at the end time with West. This painting helped him gain enough popularity at the 1782 Royal Academy exhibition to open his own studio.
The story for this painting goes that William Grant came in for a sitting with Stuart and said, "on account of the excessive coldness of the weather . . . the day was better suited for skating than sitting for one's portrait." The two skated on the Serpentine River in Hyde Park and upon returning to the studio, Gilbert Stuart came up with the idea to paint Grant skating with Westminster Abbey in the background. Grants posture consists of his arms being crossed over his chest in typical 18th century skating form. His stance alludes to the ancient Roman statue that West had a copy of in his studio, the Apollo Belvedere (The National Gallery of Art).
Artist: Gilbert Stuart Title: Captain John Gell Exec. Date: 1785 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 240 x 148.6 cm Credit line: Purchase, Dorthy Schwartz Gift, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and 2000 Benefit Fund, 2000 ACC. NO.: 2000.450 Courtesy of: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ____________________________________________________________________________ In his career, Gilbert Stuart only painted seven full length portraits. When this painting was executed, Gell had just finished his time on the naval ship, the Monarca, fighting against the French. A ship can be seen behind him as he stands in an authoritative manner."Stuart conveys Gell's heroism with theatrical expression, a real character made ideal through judicious use of fine strokes and bravura sweeps. The painting suggests spontaneity in execution, but is in fact a work of considerable artistic strategy" -The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Artist: Gilbert Stuart Title: Horatio Gates Exec. Date: c. 1793-94 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 112.4 x 91.1 cm Credit line: Gift of Lucille S. Pfeffer, 1977 ACC. NO.: 1977.243 Courtesy of: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ____________________________________________________________________________ Painted sixteen years after General Horatio Gates was victorious at the Battle of Saratoga. "Although his military career was turbulent, the English-born Gates is represented in the uniform of a brigadier general, decorated with the medal that Congress ordered struck to commemorate his triumph at Saratoga. In his hand is a copy of the Saratoga Convention. The painting descended in the family of Gates' good friend, Colonel Ebenezer Stevens. The work is a blend of Stuart's more painterly English style and the Copleyesque forthrightness that defined American high style." -The Metropolitan Museum of Art This piece is an interesting one to have in juxtaposition with those of George Washington since Gates and General Washington had a lot of tension, especially after the Battle of Saratoga. Gates reported the victory directly to congress instead of Washington. Beyond this, Gates also tried to remove General Washington command and invade Canada behind his back. These portraits next to one another say an awful a lot in historical conversation (Mount Vernon).
Artist: Gilbert Stuart Title: George Washington (The Athenaeum Portrait) Exec. Date: 1796 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 940 x 1219 cm Credit line: The Medici Society Ltd, 1914 ACC. NO.: NPG D37880 Courtesy of: National Portrait Gallery _________________________________________________________________________________ Gilbert Stuart's first portrait of George Washington in 1795 was very successful. Martha Washington "wished a Portrait for herself" (Rembrandt Peale) so her husband consented to sitting for Stuart once more as long as Martha got to keep it. Unfortunately for Martha Washington, Mr.Stuart liked this painting of Washington much more than the first. He left it unfinished so he could use it as reference for the copies George Washington's admirers would commission. It was eventually bought for the Boston Athenaeum after Stuart's death where it remained for over 150 years.
This portrait served as the basis for the engraving of Washington on the one-dollar bill. An early 19th century writer and art critic, John Neal wrote: "Though a better likeness of him were shown to us, we should reject it; for, the only idea that we now have of George Washington, is associated with Stuart's Washington." This image has become iconic in the American psyche and is one of the first that we think of when we try to picture George Washington. The picture is so popularized that no one knows how closely it resembled the actual man.
Artist: Gilbert Stuart Title: George Washington Exec. Date: 1797 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 241.3 x 151.9 cm Credit line: The White House Historical Association (White House Collection) ACC. NO.: 800.1290.1 Courtesy of: The White House Collection ____________________________________________________________________________ With the White House already set for dinner on August 24, 1814, Dolley Madison was told that the British were about to march on Washington and that she should get out of there. The first lady saved several things from sure pillaging on her way out of town including this painting, official papers, and some of the white house silver.There had been no time to properly take George Washington down from the wall. Its frame was broken and the piece headed for the country on a stretcher; it did not return for three more years. The British soldiers, after eating the dinner that had been set out for the first family, burned the White House just as the Capitol Building had been earlier that day.
Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Washington conveys the dignity and authority that made Washington the embodiment of the young country. "Washington grasps a sheathed sword, emblematic of his military past and his present position as Commander in Chief. His civilian clothes remind us that after the peace was achieved in 1783 and the army disbanded, he had resigned his commission. This renunciation of power was so novel that it astonished Europeans as well as his own countrymen. A folio volume of the Constitution and Laws of the United States leans against (symbolically, supports), the table leg whose design joins elements of the fasces—the bound rods that symbolized authority and justice in the Roman republic—and the American eagle. Next to the Constitution is a history of the American Revolution. We know from another version of the portrait that the title of the book next to that one is Washington’s General Orders, also recalling his military career. Likewise, the two books on the table are The Federalist and The Journal of Congress. These remind us of his steadfast support of the federal union and its Constitution.The President’s right arm is extended in an ancient Roman oratorical gesture." This portrait is most likely the last of the "Lansdowne type" paintings which were derived from a sitting done in April 1796. The rest of its history is thought to be that Charles Cotesworth Pinkney, newly appointed minster to France, commissioned a portrait of himself from Stuart and then saw the some of the unfinished copies he was working on. He then ordered a copy for the "official American residence in Paris." The United States government bought it for $500 when it was finished in 1797 but it would not go to its supposed home because Stuart sold it to another hoping to create another for Mr. Pickney before he returned.
Since this portrait now resides in the White House, it did obviously end up back in the hands in the government. The United States Government purchased it again on July 15, 1800 for $800. For all of those years, Mr. Pickney had not just let Stuart off the hook; in fact he wrote him many letters to Stuart, none of which received a response. Most likely for these reasons, Gilbert Stuart did not wholeheartedly take credit for the piece once it was installed in the White House (The White House Historical Association).
Artist: Gilbert Stuart Title: Dolley Payne Madison Exec. Date: 1804 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 74.1 x 61.3 cm Credit line: The White House Historical Association (White House Collection) ACC. NO.: 994.1737.1 Courtesy of: The White House Collection ____________________________________________________________________________ Between 1803 and 1805, Gilbert Stuart spent 18 months in Washington, D.C.. His popularity on the rise, Stuart was requested to paint many of the prominent people living in the Nation's capital including wife of the Secretary of State, 36 year old Dolley Payne Madison. Mrs. Madison was extremely important as she was a stand in hostess for the widower President, Thomas Jefferson.
Today, this portrait can be found in the White House, a rightful place for the first First Lady. Dolley wrote her sister, Anna Payne Cutts, that “Stewart has taken an admirable picture of Mr. Madison—his and mine are finished.”
William Koss describes the first lady's portrait thusly "Dolley Madison’s pose, her torso turned three-quarters to her right, her face and gaze turned back toward the viewer, complements the pose of her husband as he turns slightly toward her.4 One should not forget this intended balance when viewing such companion portraits separately." "The portrait conveys his regard for her intelligence, shrewdness, and affability. Stuart’s refined technique is manifest, with astonishing subtleties of modeling and brushwork. The face exhibits masterful transitions of tone. The eye sockets, lids, and greyish-blue eyes are exquisitely nuanced. There is virtually no linearity, no overstatement of feature. In examining the chin, for example, one sees that Stuart did not draw its contour with the brush. Rather, he built up the surface with thin, transparent layers of paint, then defined the chin with thicker touches for highlights and shadow." Because this portrait and the companion piece of Mr. Madison were at Montpelier when the White House was burned in 1814, it is in excellent condition. The White House cataloguer described Stuart’s painting as “the only portrait in existence of Dolley P. Madison, the most beautiful lady that ever trod the floors of the White House" (The White House Historical Association).
Artist: Gilbert Stuart Title: Anna Payne Cutts Exec. Date: 1804 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 73.8 x 61.3 cm Credit line: The White House Historical Association (White House Collection) ACC. NO.: 972.824.1 ____________________________________________________________________________ The younger sister of Dolley Madison, Anna Payne Cutts sat for this portrait around the same time that she married Massachusetts congressman, Richard Cutts. Gilbert Stuart got along well with the young Mrs. Cutts; he included his caricature-ized profile in the curtain after discussing that "the nose was the telling feature of the face" (The White House Historical Association). This piece is a good look into the positive and playful relationship Stuart could connect with his sitters with.
Artist: Gilbert Stuart Title: Thomas Jefferson (The Edgehill Portrait) Exec. Date: c. 1821 (sitting 1805) Medium: Oil on mahogany panel Dimensions: 64.4 x 53.3 cm Credit line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; owned jointly with Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Incorporated, Charlottesville, Virginia; purchase funds provided by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, the Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Incorporated, and the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation ACC. NO.: NPG.82.97 Courtesy of: National Portrait Gallery __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Throughout his career, Gilbert Stuart often had a hard time delivering on the portraits people ordered from him. He is believed to have suffered depression and was unable to get out of bed for weeks but he also was a procrastinator. As can be seen with the incomplete George Washington (The Athenaeum Portrait) portrait, Stuart also often times had different priorities in mind. Thomas Jefferson sat for a portrait by Stuart in 1805 but he did not get the portrait for sixteen more years and not without inquiring about it. Jefferson's first indication that this portrait would take a while was that after sitting the first time, Stuart asked him to sit again because he was not satisfied with his work from the first sitting (National Portrait Gallery).